NEW DELHI
Assam police Sunday said they shot and killed two suspected Bodo rebels after an exchange of fire in dense forest. However, two rebels managed to escape near the town of Tejpur 80km north of the violence-torn villages in Baksa district, Associated Press reported.
Eight guards of the Manas National Park, a world heritage site, from where the suspected Bodo rebels are believed to have attacked, were arrested for their alleged complicity in the violence that have left 32 dead so far.
Also in a slight breakthrough, survivors of the violence have agreed to perform the funeral rites of 18 people, including women and children, after chief minister Tarun Gogoi sent one of his ministers to assure the relatives that justice would be done for them, having previously refused to unless he granted them protection, Indian media reported.
The situation remained tense in Baksa and Kokrajhar districts as members of Indian Army guarded and patrolled the sensitive areas amid no reports of violence in the past 24 hours.
Hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrant Muslims and Bodos fled their homes fearing more violence as the indefinite curfew was relaxed for six hours at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
A number of Bengali-speaking Muslims continue to be missing in the affecting area amid fears that death toll may rise in coming days.
Since Thursday, more than 50 houses belonging to Muslim community have been set ablaze by the armed Bodo rebels after the indiscriminate firing in four different attacks which killed 32 people, all of them Muslims.
Indian police authorities have blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland for the deadly attacks and have arrested more than 20 people from Baksa district in connection with the four attacks that singled out Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Assam state government has announced a compensation of $5000 for the next kin of the each victim. The federal government is expected to contribute an equal amount.
The brutal ethnic massacre has brought back memories of 2012 large-scale rioting between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims which killed more than 80 people and displaced 400,000.
The rebels, an ethnic minority, have been fighting India demanding a separate homeland for the region’s Bodo people for decades.
Analysts believe the deadly attacks are a result of poll season “hate wave” as Bodos think migrant Muslims did not vote for a particular Bodo candidate on April 24 national election in the state.
Another key undercurrent is the complex and thorny issue of “illegal migration” as Assam shares a porous border with Bangladesh.
Bodo rebels accuse the Bengali-speaking Muslims as “illegal migrants” as they view the sizable Muslim population as a threat to the regional and ethnic demography.
The “illegal migration” became a key poll issue in the region as Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi raised it at a recent public election campaign rally in neighboring eastern state of West Bengal.
63-year-old Modi, frontrunner to be the next prime minister, said, “You can write it down. After May 16 (date of election result), these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed.”
By Mubasshir Mushtaq
englishnews@aa.com.tr
